Bad Timing

I noticed that my female Labrador O’Lena had some blood in her urine. At first I thought it was her being in season but then determined she was not.

I took a sample (it is difficult walking behind a dog at 5:30am to get one by the way). Then I determined that the mobile Vet was not available until Friday. I was able to get another sample and rushed it and the dog up to the location of the mobile Vet. She did an exam and said she would check the sample later in the day.

The Vet suggested an ultrasound ASAP and I called the local Vets with offices in the order of suggestion. The first choice said they could schedule an ultrasound next Friday. The second said Wednesday. I called one on the other side of the island and they said they don’t do ultrasounds and send people to the Vet here who said 1 week. I then called the Vet up county (an hour and a half drive each way). That is a bit shorter than Hilo though. So Monday morning I will drive up there with O’Lena.

Friday night I got a text that it looks like an infection/bladder stones and she would get a prescription ready. Unfortunately I did not see the latter text until Sunday afternoon saying the meds are ready, so I am a day and half behind on the medicine.

On Thursday I guess it was, I left my main set of car keys somewhere. I know this because Saturday when I went to use them, I could not find them. I checked using my Tile app and it said they were last seen near the Post Office. On my spare set I have a PO Box key so I drove there and inside the box was… (drum roll for effect) a yellow card saying to come inside to the clerk to recover a ‘lost item’. I guess the card makes sense to them because either I would be able to see the card with a spare key or I would not have a spare key and have to ask at the counter. In any event, it would have helped me if they had left them in the box. Now I have to stop by there on my way up county tomorrow and I will stop by on the way up north as I don’t know if I will be back soon or not. Depending upon what the ultrasound finds, they may operate on O’Lena. If so they may or may not keep her for recovery and I would have to come home and go back up later. So having the extra set of car keys is helpful.

Decades ago I locked my car keys in the car. I got a ride to a local auto parts place and got a jimmy. This is a flat piece of metal which is used to slip between the glass and pull on the rod which unlocks the car door. Over the years they have probably changed car design to make this less useful. Anyway, later in the day I started the card and popped the trunk. I wanted to hide this jimmy because they were indicative of people breaking into vehicles. I hid it well and closed the trunk. When I went to enter the car again I found the doors locked and the engine still running. If the trunk was unlocked I could have gotten in that way as it was a hatchback. So I walked to the car parts place and the clerk said “Didn’t you just buy one of these” pointing to the jimmy in my hand. “Don’t ask” was my reply. Since that time I have tried to have two sets of keys on me at any given time.

I don’t use a hide-a-key box as they are pretty easily found. On one vehicle where I could lift the hood without being inside the car, I thought I had a perfect hiding place. As I boasted to a friend he made three guesses and the third one was it, and he was not a thief. My ‘hidden’ location was inside the top of the cap that held windshield fluid. Maybe you would not think to look for a spare key there, but he did.

One of my Camaros came with a credit card sized plastic card and there was a pop-out metal key to open the car door. That was neat but only allowed opening the door. The ignition key had a security feature built in. That security feature was not very secure for its day. As I remember, it was an embedded resistor with 1 of 12 values. If you had a door key and could jumper across the wires for the sensor, you only needed 12 tries to get the thing to start. After an unsuccessful start there was a time delay before you could try again, but in a few hours the car would be yours.

That vehicle was stolen but not by that trick. I had slid on ice and pushed the passengers side tire into the frame. It was towed to the local Chevy dealer. I got a rental car from the dealer while awaiting repair. ON Monday I stopped by and asked to get some things out of the vehicle and they directed me around back. The car was not there. Long story short (which is unusual for me) the vehicle was taken using the set of keys the dealer was given. They said they always removed the keys from cars every night, so that made it an inside job. The dealer sore this had never happened before but the police said not true.

So the dealers rep called me and said that they could not authorize my use of the rental car any longer, I replied “My car was stolen off your lot in what looks like an inside job. Without the rental car, I will be forced to sue you for a new car”. Seems they quickly authorized unlimited car rental.

The car was found days later, partially stripped for parts. The dealer fixed it up but wanted to charge me for the initial repair. I seem to remember I paid partially for that but they had to cover the rest for my inconvenience.

So to wrap this up, I am giving the dog her meds and have fed them early. That way I won’t have to make many stops along the trip in the morning and her system will be empty, should they decide to operate on something. I doubt that will be the case, but I would rather be prepared. I will be removing everything from the back seat of the truck and have already cleaned the seat protector. I will also clean out the downstairs room and the porch in case she needs to stay there for any type of recovery. As I say, this is all preparations just in case. I am hoping they will say the medicine she is on will clear up what she has.

I was hoping to have her spayed soon, but can’t while she is sick. So any preparations I make for the porch or other locations will be ready for that operating too.

In the next day or so I need to get some belts for my flail mower. One is broken and the second is a bit worn. If I can’t get the exact size replacement, I’ll have to replace all three and reset the tension so they all are tight.

I am holding off on the repair of the 4-wheel drive section until next year as parts will cost $1,000 exclusive of repair cost. I’ll take another withdrawal from my retirement fund in January. In a year and a half I will be required to start taking withdrawals. I just got a head start on it.

I am not getting a lot of coffee this year, so money from that is in short supply. Such is farming.

I need to get off to clearing out the truck, so that’s it for now.